New Bristol Bears signing Ethan Staddon and back Noah Heward have both suffered anterior cruciate ligament injuries and face long spells on the sidelines.

Staddon was Bristol’s most high-profile signing this summer, with the versatile back-row forward making the move from neighbours Bath.

However he has already undergone surgery, as has Heward, who went off five minutes into the team’s Prem Rugby Cup loss to Exeter two weeks ago.

Centre Kalaveti Ravouvou is also unavailable for around 12 weeks after picking up a knee injury while on international duty with Fiji, and is unlikely to feature until after the November international break.

Director of rugby Pat Lam said Staddon had been “training really well” and “pushing” to be in the starting line-up for the opening Prem game away to Sale on Saturday.

“He was showing everything that was the reason we brought him over here, he came for opportunity and development and he was flying. It is a real shame for him,” Lam told BBC Radio Bristol.

The Bears are also missing prop Max Lahiff for the trip to the Sharks with an ankle injury, hooker Harry Thacker is still going through the return to play protocols after going off with a head injury during the Cup games although fellow hooker Gabriel Oghre is available after missing the end of last season.

Lam said they were not opposed to bringing more cover in if needed.

“We’ve got a lot of academy boys working as well,” he added. “At the moment we’re okay but we’ve got one eye on options.”

Bristol endured a raft of injuries last season with Lam describing it as the worst injury crisis he had ever experienced during his career.

They went on to finish sixth in the table, but Lam said his team were “really confident” going into the new campaign and in a better position because of how stretched their squad was at times last season.

“The beauty of it [is] a lot of the boys that came in they ended up getting a lot of games which means that we go into this [season] with over 2,000 caps amongst our squad,” he said.

“Ultimately for us the biggest thing is that we’ve got a more cohesive group across the squad and for us it’s about winning more games.

“It was deliberate that we didn’t bring many people in because we do have a good group and a lot of the guys that are still here didn’t play much last year and are now back.”